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Merkley holds big banker accountable

When Chase CEO Jamie Dimon appeared before the Senate Banking Committee last week to answer for his company’s massive trading losses, observers expected a fierce debate and rigorous questioning from the nation’s leaders. Instead, reporters had a field day with the many weak and uninformed softball queries lobbed at the banker during his time on Capitol Hill. The one exception to this apathy was Oregon’s own Jeff Merkley, who won national praise from Rolling Stone’s harsh political critic, Matt Taibbi:

“If not for Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, who was the only senator who understood the importance of taking the right tone with Dimon, the hearing would have been a total fiasco.”

It's also important to note that Senator Merkley is among a small group of senators on the committee who have not accepted campaign contributions from Dimon. You can see one rather contentious exchange between Senator Merkley and Dimon here:

AG considers mortgage rules

Attorney General John Kroger led the first of two public hearings on potential mortgage servicing rules in Portland last Wednesday, drawing a packed room of homeowners, advocates, consumer attorneys and bankers.

Kroger heard horror stories of banks improperly foreclosing on Oregonians, and also got an earful from the banking lobbyists, who claimed the standards of conduct would simply be too cumbersome for them to follow. In addition to the big bank lobbyist, two representatives from small banks testified against the reforms, and the credit union's lobbyist stated he was providing neutral testimony, but had nothing positive to say about the rules.

The Department of Justice will hold another public hearing on the rules on June 28th in Salem. For more information on the hearing, visit our events page. You’ll also find information there on how to submit your testimony online if you’re not able to make it to the hearing. For more information on the rules, download this info sheet.

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EFO is hiring

EFO is looking to fill two field positions. The positions are for a special project of limited duration from July through December. Check out the post on our jobs page.

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Economic Fairness Oregon is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to consumer protection and fair lending laws. Our goal is to restore a financial system built to work for the people, not against them.

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